Primary school appeal

chen234

Hi
 after some guidance on a school appeal.
im moving into a new town in 2 weeks time so applied for the three nearest schools in my catchment area. My daughter in year 1 has a place in my 1st choice but they don’t have a space for my year 5 son. My other choices also do not have spaces for either of them. They are all at PAN 30 so I’m appealing to the 1st choice on the basis that we are literally around the corner, his sibling has been accepted and the next nearest is 5 miles away so impossible for me to get them both dropped off and picked up at the same time. Do you think any of this will work on my favour? I’ve never done this before 
2nd in the admissions criteria is sibling in the same school.
 3rd is in catchment area

Any help or tips will be much appreciated 

Savvy_Sue

There is a long thread about school appeals here which it would be worth you skimming, probably from the end as there's a lot in it. 

However, the very very first thing to do is to put your year 5 son on the waiting list at your first choice, AND to put them both on the waiting list at any other school you're prepared to consider. 

Then you ask where on the waiting list you are, for each child. 

If your year 5 son is very high, you may well find it will work out OK because - as you're demonstrating - people do move over the summer. However bear in mind that in most cases, a Looked After Child (LAC) moving into the area would take priority over your son, so even if he is first on the list, he may be 'bumped off' if a LAC needs a place. Same with any school where you put both children on the waiting list

I'm not sure your grounds for appeal are very strong, in law, which is often what matters. Did they make an error in refusing your son a place? Probably not, because they do not have a space in year 5. And right now, he does not have a sibling at the school, because his younger sister hasn't started yet, and they do not have a space in year 5. And the catchment area doesn't come into play, because they do not have a space in year 5. And how you get each child to school is not the school's problem. 

However, I have stirring at the back of my brain that class sizes may be allowed to exceed 30 in JUNIOR aged classes, but not in INFANT classes, and I am hoping that someone far more knowledgeable than I will come along and confirm or deny this. Ah look, I've just found this. That gives me hope for you. 

I think it would be worth having a conversation with the school about the likelihood of your son being offered a place ANYWAY: it's possible they will know that the Jones family are expecting to move and have a child in year 5.  If you do have to go to appeal I would be careful of demanding that they create a space for him: whenever it's a case of "I really wanted them in THIS school and I'm heartbroken that they didn't get in because the other school is pants" it's very important to get across why your choice is the RIGHT one for your child, not that the other one is pants. However asking nicely that they consider the social needs of your son, moving to a new area, needing to make friends and having a sibling going into Year 1, and reminding them that they can exceed the PAN, and so on ...

Of course they may come back and point out that physically fitting one more child in is simply impossible, and that is something t be aware of. 

silvercar

Contact the local authority and see what they say. They have a duty to provide a place somewhere. Given that they will be obliged to provide transport if the allocated school is over 3 miles away, they may decide to apply some pressure on the 1st choice school to create a placement even if it means the class size is over 30. If all classes are full, some school somewhere is going to have to accommodate, so it may as well be the one you want.

Mrsn

@ savvy Sue - However, I have stirring at the back of my brain that class sizes may be allowed to exceed 30 in JUNIOR aged classes, but not in INFANT classes, and I am hoping that someone far more knowledgeable than I will come along and confirm or deny this. Ah look, I've just found this. That gives me hope for you

This is correct. Once they enter into year 3 the admissions number doesn’t matter but most schools which choose to stick to the 30 as it makes things easier when moving up to subsequent years etc. 

OP you have been given excellent advice already but it would be sensible to have a back up plan just incase. I feel
for you as we have been in this situation with being offered schools 5 miles apart and the appeals panel didn’t consider this to be “their issue” so to speak. Lots of movement does happen throughout the school holidays so my fingers are crossed for you.

Savvy_Sue

silvercar said:

Contact the local authority and see what they say. They have a duty to provide a place somewhere. Given that they will be obliged to provide transport if the allocated school is over 3 miles away, they may decide to apply some pressure on the 1st choice school to create a placement even if it means the class size is over 30. If all classes are full, some school somewhere is going to have to accommodate, so it may as well be the one you want.

Oh I LIKE that! Good thinking ...

GedlingRed

Hi, I look after admissions at a primary school and as mentioned above in KS2 you do have flexibility to go over PAN, all our Y3-Y6 classes are over.    If you are applying through your Local Authority they won't be able to make a decision/offer a place if the year group is at PAN you could have a chat to the headteacher and see if they'll consider offering a place due to your circumstances. The school can then go to the LEA and say they would like to offer you a place.   I've had applications for siblings come in and where possible we'll try and fit both children in even if a class is full (only possible after KS1 though) so it's worth chatting to the Head Teacher if possible and appeal to their goodwill.  Good luck!

Spendless

I was going to say too PAN didn't apply to the Junior school years (yr3-6) BUT I believe the physical space of the school is taken into account too. A nearby Primary only used to increase it's numbers to 32 for the KS2 years.

I'd also check out the admissions policy for the area and school where you live. Where I am siblings DON'T take precedence over catchment. At the Secondary school where mine went they changed their policy so siblings were below attended a Primary feeder school too. This won't apply for Primary school but worth knowing not all areas and schools appy the same admission policy.  know you've said you're only 5 mins away but this doesn't necessarily make you within catchment to a particular school. Check it out or you might find you're not only behind any LAC as already mentioned but also others. 

Also since you're only a year or so away from making a Secondary school application for your eldest, I'd take the local Secondaries into account too when looking for something suitable. 

elisamoose

Do have a look at the actual catchment - I work in a school where houses nearer than others are not in our catchment

Spendless

I've just re-read your post. You've put you applied for the 3 nearest schools in your catchment area. I;ve no idea if it's the same all over the country, but where I am it's not possible to be in the catchment area of more than one school, though you can apply for up to 3 schools anywhere, which I think you might mean. Your address is the catchment area for just ONE Primary (or Infant/Junior) school and ONE Secondary school. It's not always the closest school either. 

silvercar

Spendless said:

I've just re-read your post. You've put you applied for the 3 nearest schools in your catchment area. I;ve no idea if it's the same all over the country, but where I am it's not possible to be in the catchment area of more than one school, though you can apply for up to 3 schools anywhere, which I think you might mean. Your address is the catchment area for just ONE Primary (or Infant/Junior) school and ONE Secondary school. It's not always the closest school either. 

It is definitely possible. In some areas voluntary controlled schools set their own catchment areas, in others you can live near a border and find yourself in the catchment for different schools - or none. Also some schools have feeder schools, I know not identical to catchment areas, but they work in the same way.